Biathlon: Sebastian Samuelsson signs his worst result for eight years
Sebastian Samuelsson made an important choice at the Biathlon World Cup in Nove Mesto. The Swede decided to travel to the Czech Republic rather than prepare specifically for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina (Italy), as sisters Hanna and Elvira Oeberg did.
The challenge: to maintain his chances in the overall standings. At the start of the sixth stage of the 2025/2026 World Cup, he was third in the standings, 14 points behindEric Perrot (2nd) and 96 behind the Italian yellow number Tommaso Giacomel (1st).
Except that not everything went according to plan in Thursday’s individual short. And that’s putting it mildly. He scored a pitiful 12/20 against the targets, with six errors in his first two passes over the shooting range, and finished 73rd in the race.
And was beaten by competitors from exotic nations: Japan, Romania, Kazakhstan… Quite simply his worst result since the Hochfilzen sprint on December 7… 2017. In 199 World Cup races, he had only done worse on one other occasion. ” It’s well below my level, maybe even the worst race of my career”, he admitted to SVT.
“I find it hard to explain” the 8 shooting errors
His shooting failure was all the more problematic given that the short individual format penalised each mistake by 45 seconds. This cost him 6 minutes on the podium, made up ofEric Perrot, Emilien Jacquelin and Italy’s Lukas Hofer. At the finish, he was 7 min 2 behind the winner.
I wasn’t up to the job,” he continues. I’m finding it really hard to explain why and I’m starting to lose my head. It’s really sad and I want to do better than this.
While this position outside the top 60 is less of a problem than in the sprint, it does prevent him from scoring points in the rankings (which is the case for the top 40). Sebastian Samuelsson has lost 90 points to Eric Perrot and 31 to Tommaso Giacomel. He is now 127 points off the lead and 104 off second place overall.
In a formula that no longer removes the two worst results, the Swede’ s performance in the Czech Republic was decidedly poor. But he will have the chance to make up for it on Sunday in the mass-start, where he qualifies on the basis of his overall ranking.
- The full programme for the Nove Mesto World Cup, the sixth stage of the 2025/2026 season
- The girls go home for two days, the boys join the Czech Republic on Monday: two different strategies for the French team before Nove Mesto.
- No change for the last pre-Olympic World Cup: the French team’s selection for Nove Mesto has been announced
- Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Johan-Olav Botn present, firsts for Guro Ytterhus and Vetle Paulsen: Norway’s squad for the Nove Mesto World Cup unveiled
- Belgium with only Thierry Langer and César Beauvais at the Nove Mesto World Cup
- Suvi Minkkinen, runner-up to Lou Jeanmonnot, doesn’t miss out: Finland with its headliners in Nove Mesto
- Italy in Nove Mesto with Lisa Vittozzi, Dorothea Wierer and Tommaso Giacomel
- Leaders Magnus Oberhauser, Patrick Jakob and Tamara Steiner promoted: Austria’s selection for the Nove Mesto World Cup
- With Sebastian Samuelsson, Anna Magnusson and Martin Ponsiluoma, but without the Oeberg sisters: Sweden’s squad for the Nove Mesto World Cup
- Nove Mesto World Cup: a largely reorganised German team… but led by Franziska Preuss
- Nove Mesto: Marketa Davidova has to withdraw from the home round of the World Cup
- Coralie Langel stays on the circuit, Niklas Hartweg is rested: Switzerland’s selection for the World Cup in Nove Mesto
- Nove Mesto: Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin do the double in the individual short, Oscar Lombardot and Emilien Claude in the flowers
- Nove Mesto: excellent overall result for Eric Perrot, who moves back to within 23 points of Tommaso Giacomel
- Eric Perrot smiles broadly after dominating the individual short in Nove Mesto: “It’s very satisfying to be back on the winning track”.
- “This performance comes at just the right time”: Emilien Jacquelin’s thoughts after finishing second in the individual short at the Nove Mesto World Cup
- Oscar Lombardot and Emilien Claude: “It’s a real pleasure” and “I’ve hung in there”, a top 6 that comes just at the right time before the 2026 Olympic Games.
